Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Feminism and other issues

As you should know Isaiah did two The World Today Just Nuts this week. The first was "The Joker" and the second was "Success" (which is above).

Tonight, I'm highlighting a comment.

Ms. magazine's blog did a stupid article, I think, on child abuse which had to open with the ridiculous Dylan Farrow. The 29-year-old's claims were rejected by the court.

You may find Woody Allen "icky" and that's fine.

But quit taking the little whining Dylan's said when nothing backs her up.

So I wrote a comment but decided not to leave it.

I'm sharing it here:

To this post I say, Blah, blah, blah.Can we be feminists? As opposed to Inside Edition?At what point does Ms. plan to write about the Human Rights Watch report?Does it have to be Mia Farrow for Ms. to give a damn?The report is entitled "'NO ONE IS SAFE: Abuses of Women in Iraq's Criminal Justice System." NPR has ignored the report. So has Ms. I don't know which I'm more upset with right now.Iraqi women's lives matter.No one knows what happened to Dylan Farrow. She's 29-years-old and in the US. I'm sure she'll make it through.But the Human Rights Watch report?You'll find that one woman was cleared by the judge but wasn't released from prison. The judge found she was tortured into signing a false confession and dropped all charges. But she didn't get released like she was supposed to. No, she got executed.Then there's the female journalist who was tortured and finally gave in because they threatened to go after her daughter.There are the women who were raped in the prisons, there are the women who got pregnant from the rapes.Iraqi women are suffering and Ms. repeatedly ignores it over and over every damn year. It's disgusting.The Iraqi women? As feminists, we should be focused on them. We should be outraged by how they are being treated. Our government created these problems for the Iraqi women, how dare we close our eyes to what takes place now.I would really love it if Ms. could grow the hell up and stop with the celebrity crushes because there are real issues in this world. The inability these days of Ms. to cover any serious issue without a celebrity face divorces this website from most of our lives. I don't know if the bloggers are too young or too shallow or both but women have real issues to deal with and the celebrity gossip angle degrades us all.

I want to be really clear that this new Ms. approach of finding a celebrity before writing about an issue.

Feminism is supposed to be grassroots, not worship.

As Ms. rushes to serve up entertainment, it leaves a community unserved.

Monday, February 10, 2014. Chaos and violence continue, there's an
assassination attempt on the Speaker of Iraq's Pariament, beastly gas
bags weigh in flaunting their ignorance, NPR is delighted by 'fun'
bombing victims, NPR is among the many outlets that failed to cover
Human Rights Watch's report on the abuse of Iraqi women, feminist or
'feminist' outlets in the US also ignored the report (Women's e-News did
cover it), the assault on Anbar continues, and much more.

Let's start with the gas bags. Former US Ambassador to Iraq James Jeffrey insists the US didn't fail and didn't lose Iraq and blah blah blah. You know what, Foreign Policy
pimps war. They hire idiots like Thomas E. Ricks (oh, we'll to him,
just wait) and when they seek outside views, the views are never
outside.

Everyone in the US did not support Bully Boy Bush trying to destroy
Iraq. But the only voices Foreign Policy wants to offer are the voices
of war. James Jeffrey pushed for war on Iraq. He just needs to sit his
ass down. He's an embarrassment. He writes today yet somehow ignores
last week's Human Rights Watch report.

Here's reality, if Dodge said what Ricks says Dodge said, he's not just a little wrong, he's damn stupid.

First off, Dodge is quoted stating that Nouri said any changes to the
(2008) Status Of Forces Agreement would have to go through the Iraqi
Parliament. No, that's not the issue and it wasn't an issue. This was
not about approval for amendments.

The stumbling block for the administration was the issue of immunity.
It was present in the 2008 SOFA. If only amendments to it required a
vote, then the State Dept's Brett McGurk lied to Congress last week.

If Toby Dodge said or wrote what Man Boobs Ricks repeated, Dodge doesn't know a damn thing.

I've never heard of anything so stupid from a supposed expert before.

The Status Of Forces Agreement was a three year contract which governed
2009, 2010 and 2011. The Parliament voted on it Thanksgiving Day 2008.

For 2011? Nouri and other political leaders told the US that Parliament
would not vote for a continued US presence so -- and McGurk testified
to this just last week -- US government gave up.

As portrayed by Ricks, Dodge also doesn't grasp the argument Senator John McCain has presented.

This is more crap from Thomas E. Ricks -- the blogger who makes Thomas Friedman come off timely and relevant.

From the gas bags to the journalists, if you're ever trying to figure
out just how worthless NPR can be, they demonstrated it today as Mark
Memmott made clear he wants to be the new Hedda Hopper.

As he makes clear here, he never learned about reporting. He spent his time instead on the phone gossiping.

At least 21 people died in a bombing today. We noted it, we noted the death toll.

We didn't note that they were suicide bombers or suicide bombers in training.

But Memmott does. He 'backs it up' by linking to AP, for example.

AP had no one present at the bombing.

It's hearsay.

It's already been established -- thought not for Memmott or any of the
US press because they're so stupid and so they're deceitful -- but it's
already been established that the 'terrorists' killed in an assorted
aireal bombings carried out by the Iraq military were often not
terrorists.

In the Arabic world, they've been more than fine with doing journalism.
Visiting the areas, speaking to the people involved, documenting it
with video.

Journalism is not presenting as fact one side's claims. Those of us old
enough to remember Vietnam, are fully aware that the government -- the
US government -- repeatedly lied about who got killed and the numbers
killed. It's no different than The Drone War today and all the lies US
President Barack Obama and others in the administration tell about
'terrorists' -- who apparently stopped to attend a wedding, for example.

What may be known is that 20 or 21 or 22 people died in a bombing. Who those people were?

That's the slutty US press which can never stop whoring. Women in
Baghdad die, they're "prostitutes." That's the sort of the US press
does (AFP has picked it up as well). Dead women who can't defend
themselves are labeled prostitutes and the US press treats it as gospel.

There have always been prostitutes in Iraq -- male and female. And many
outlets know it. Certainly the Go-Go Boys of the Green Zone were
frequenting Baghdad prostitutes in 2003 and 2004.

But they couldn't report on the prostitution. One denied it.

Off Our Backs was the only US publication to treat the prostitution in Baghdad issue seriously.

NPR didn't take it seriously. But then they rarely take issues that impact women seriously.

The disgusting Mark Memmott finds it 'cute' that people died. He'd
insist he finds it cute that 'terrorists' died. But he can prove they
were terrorists. The only source for that is the Iraqi government. The
same government that labels peaceful protesters as "terrorists."

Memmott's never felt the need to report that either -- even though Nouri's been labeling protesters as "terrorists" since 2011.

In Iraq, a lot of people get labeled as 'terrorists.' An Iraqi female
journalist, for example, was falsely labeled as one. And the police
knew it was false. They tortured her anyway. Because they didn't like
her articles, they didn't like her reporting on the government's short
comings.

Mark Memmott has a case of the giggles today and amuses himself with Iraq.

That must be the explanation for his failure to write about that. No
one at NPR wrote about it for the website. None of NPR's national
programs covered it.

But let Little Marky have the opportunity to giggle over
the-gang-who-couldn't-shoot-straight 'terrorists' and he's ready to run
with it. (Strangely, when Nouri's air forces bombed and killed a group
of men at the end of last week -- a group of men who turned out to be
Iraqi soldiers -- Mark Memmott had no interest in writing about that.)

Mark Memmott takes the Iraqi government on their word despite the fact
that journalists are supposed to question and to present claims they
can't verify as claims.

I don't trust Nouri's government because, unlike Mark Memmott, I pay attention. This is from HRW's report released last week:

The report finds that security forces carry out illegal arrests
and other due process
violations against women at every stage of
the justice system,
including threats and
beatings. Israa Salah (not her real name),
for example, entered her interview with
Human Rights Watch in Iraq’s death row facility in Baghdad’s Kadhimiyya neighborhood
on crutches. She said nine days of beatings, electric shocks with an instrument known
as “the donkey,” and
falaqa
(when the victim is hung upside down and beaten on their
feet) in March 2012 had left her permanently disabled. A split nose, back scars, and
burns on her breast were consistent with
her alleged abuse. Israa was executed in
September 2013, seven months after we met her, despite lower court rulings that
dismissed charges against her because a medical report documented she was tortured
into confessing to a crime.

Do you get what happened there? Mark Memmott can't because he's so stupid.

But most of us can read that paragraph above and note that Israa Salah
was not only tortured by Nouri's forces, she was also put to death
"despite lower court rulings that dismissed charges against her."

That should outrage most people.

She was executed even after a court had determined she had been tortured to give a false confession.

She was executed even after a court dismissed all charges against her.

Most people can grasp that the woman shouldn't have been executed but instead should have been immediately released.

Mark doesn't want to tell that story because it doesn't let him giggle or suck up to Nouri al-Maliki and others in power.

It's an uncomfortable story, not a chuckle.

And more and more -- especially with their ludicrous on air 'recipe' segments -- NPR can't offer anything but breezy nonsense.

Morning Edition did not report on Human Rights Watch's investigation. Terry Gross did not invite HRW onto Fresh Air to discuss the findings. All Things Considered? Nothing was considered when it came to the Human Rights Watch report because All Things Considered
ignored it as well. Diane Rehm had a whole hour Friday to fill, her
so-called 'international hour' -- and yet she served up nonsense and
crap and didn't even touch on Iraq. Why do you have radio programs,
public radio, when you refuse to cover investigations and human rights
abuses.

Let's go to the report again:

For example, Fatima Hussein (not her real name), a journalist accused of involvement in
the murder of a parliamentarian’s brother and of being married to an Al-Qaeda member,
described physical and sexual torture in early 2012 at the hands of one particular
interrogator in Tikrit, Colonel Ghazi. She described Ghazi tying her blindfolded to a column
and electrocuting her with an electric baton,
hitting her feet and back with cable, kicking
her, pulling her hair, tying her naked to a column and extinguishing cigarettes on her body,
and later handcuffing her to a bed, forcing her to give him oral sex, and raping her three
times. “There was blood all over me. He would
relax, have a cigarette, and put it out on my
buttock, and then started again,” she said. Women who spoke with Human Rights Watch,
who all explicitly denied involvement in
alleged crimes, also described being pushed towards confessions by interrogators
threatening to hurt loved ones. Fatima described Ghazi passing her the phone, with her
daughter at the end of the line, before threatening: "I'll do to your daughter what I did to
you."

“No One is Safe” presented some of the most harrowing evidence of the
abuse of women by Iraq’s criminal “justice system.” The phenomenon of
kidnapping, torturing, raping and executing women is so widespread that
it seems shocking even by the standards of the country’s poor human
rights record of the past. If such a reality were to exist in a
different political context, the global outrage would have been so
profound. Some in the “liberal” western media, supposedly compelled by
women’s rights would have called for some measure of humanitarian
intervention, war even. But in the case of today’s Iraq, the HRW report
is likely to receive bits of coverage where the issue is significantly
deluded, and eventually forgotten.In fact, the discussion of the
abuse of thousands of women -- let alone tens of thousands of men -- has
already been discussed in a political vacuum. A buzzword that seems to
emerge since the publication of the report is that the abuse confirms
the “weaknesses” of the Iraqi judicial system. The challenge then
becomes the matter of strengthening a weak system, perhaps through
channeling more money, constructing larger facilities and providing
better monitoring and training, likely carried out by US-led training of
staff.Mostly absent are the voices of women’s groups, intellectuals
and feminists who seem to be constantly distressed by the traditional
marriage practices in Yemen, for example, or the covering up of women’s
faces in Afghanistan. There is little, if any, uproar and outrage, when
brown women suffer at the hands of western men and women, or their
cronies, as is the situation in Iraq.

Ms. magazine's blog never noted the report.While Women's Media Center
has a campaign which insists "Don't Let Women's Voices Be Silenced in
2014," they have thus far let Iraqi women be silenced by refusing to
write an article or even a Tweet about the HRW report (and they've 28
Tweets since the report was released).B-b-but the report just came out!Last Thursday. And Women's e-News has managed to cover it. Sarah Sheffer covered it for The NewsHour (PBS).By contrast, NPR refused to cover it -- on air or at the website.They did 'tax' themselves by re-running an AP report.Women are tortured and raped, disappeared into prisons, their children threatened and this isn't news to Women's Media Center?WMC makes time on their awful Twitter feed to whore for the daughter of
celebrities but they can't do a damn thing for Iraqi women?

So, yeah, in the US, there is a need to call out.

Trina was on the
phone earlier and she's addressing this at her site tonight because of
something she saw online -- something covered by a feminist outlet that
wasn't really news but the feminist outlet still can't cover the Human
Rights Watch report.

The silence in the US -- whether from the feminist press or the mainstream press -- is shameful.

The EU considers that internal political divisions and sectarian tensions have
significantly
contributed to the deterioration of the security situation inside Iraq, to which a security
response alone cannot be sufficient. The EU renews its call on all of Iraq's political and
religious leaders to engage in dialogue and to speak out against sectarianism
and violence. It
encourages the Government of Iraq to reinforce the rule of law and take decisive measures to
promote inclusiveness and advance reconciliation, as Iraq's long term security and stability
depend on an inclusive political process. The EU is closely following the developments in Anbar province, including in the cities of
Ramadi and Fallujah, and encourages the Government of Iraq to strengthen cooperation
between its security forces and local Anbar tribes. The EU is deeply
concerned by the large
numbers of Internally Displaced Persons fleeing the conflict zones and emphasises the
importance of protecting civilians. The EU also encourages efforts by
the Government of Iraq
to ensure the provision of essential services as well as access by humanitarian agencies to
areas affected by the fighting.

Let's move to violence and then we'll come back to the elections.

In today's big news, know it's not the gossip, it's that the Speaker of Parliament survived an assassination attempt. Reuters notes, "The speaker of Iraq's parliament narrowly escaped death on Monday when a
roadside bomb exploded near his convoy close to the northern city of
Mosul, his office said." Mu Xuequan (Xinhua) offers, "In the northern province of Nineveh, a roadside bomb
went off near the convoy of Speaker Osama al-Nujaifi and Governor Atheel
al- Nujaifi, also brother of Osama, south of the provincial capital of
Mosul, a local police source told Xinhua." NINA notes the bombing left six security guards injured, AFP adds, "Mosul and the surrounding Nineveh province, where Nujaifi’s brother
Atheel is governor, is one of Iraq’s most violent areas, with attacks
regularly targeting security forces, government officials and civilians."

The
United States strongly condemns today’s attack on the convoy of the
Speaker of the Iraqi Council of Representatives, Osama al-Nujaifi, in
Ninewa province. Speaker Nujaifi has been a strong partner of the United
States’ efforts in Iraq and we are grateful that he was unharmed in the
attack.Today’s attack exemplifies the danger terrorist groups pose to all
Iraqis, and the importance of Iraqi leaders from all communities working
together to isolate militant groups from the broader population. The
United States stands with the Iraqi people and will continue to work
closely with Iraqi political and security leaders to combat those who
commit such senseless acts.

Osama al-Nujaifi is a Sunni, a group persecuted and targeted by Nouri.
In doing so, Nouri has allowed Shi'ite militias to operate in Iraq --
this after militias were supposedly outlawed. But more than just
allowing them to operate, Nour is supporting Shi'ite militias. In
September, Tim Arango (New York Times) broke the story:

In supporting Asaib al-Haq, Mr. Maliki has apparently made the risky
calculation that by backing some Shiite militias, even in secret, he can
maintain control over the country’s restive Shiite population and,
ultimately, retain power after the next national elections, which are
scheduled for next year. Militiamen and residents of Shiite areas say
members of Asaib al-Haq are given government badges and weapons and
allowed freedom of movement by the security forces.

Members of Asaib Ahl al-Haq, an Iranian-backed Shiite group
responsible for thousands of attacks on U.S. forces during the Iraq war,
admit they have ramped up targeted killings in response to a cascade of
bomb attacks on their neighborhoods.“We’ve had to be much more
active,” said an Asaib Ahl al-Haq commander who goes by the nom de
guerre Abu Sajad. “Those who are trying to incite sectarianism, we have
to deal with them,” he said, drawing his hand over his throat like a
knife.

Over the weekend, NINA reported:The Arab Political Council in Kirkuk expressed on Saturday 8 Feb. its
surprise at the unjustified silence of the parliamentary political
blocks, parties and organizations towards the humanitarian tragedy in
Anbar province, and especially the city of Fallujah. Chairman of
the Council , Sheikh Abdul Rahman Munshed al- Assi told the National
Iraqi News Agency / NINA / : "We are very concerned for the effects and
consequences of the current crisis, humanly and politically, a matter
that requires everyone to stand and think to find an urgent solution to
stop the bloodshed now ongoing in al-Anbar.

Sunday, NINA reported that Sheikh Ali Hatem al-Suleiman -- a Sahwa leader -- declared that "the solution of the crisis in Anbar lies in a
neutral third party and implementing the legitimate demands of the
protesters." and that "the government should prove its
good faith by stopping the shelling of cities and sending food and
medical supplies as well as oil , in addition to the full response to
the legitimate demands of the protesters." Motahedoon coalition MP Salman al-Jumaili stated Sunday that solutions were being ignored as the government continued to
attempt a "military solution" and that "any initiative to resolve the
crisis in Anbar cannot succeed if it
does not include stop shelling and air strikes on Fallujah and other
neighborhoods first, and the return of displaced people , as well as
keeping the army out of the areas of contact with citizens and then re
local authorities to enforce security." NINA also reported on Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlaq:

Al-Mutlaq
said in a meeting with ambassadors of EU countries in the Greek Embassy
in Baghdad on the occasion of handing over Greece EU presidency , that
the military operations in Anbar province, left behind thousands of
displaced families facing harsh conditions due to the extreme cold and
lack of food and medical supplies , not to mention the other families
still besieged and exposed to bombardment , threats and very difficult
humanitarian situations.Al-Mutlaq discussed , according to a
statement by his press office , with a number of ambassadors from the
European Union, visions to resolve the crisis of Anbar and restore
security and stability to its cities, and be quick in taking positions
that would lead to compensate the displaced families and ease their
coming back and repair the physical damage to their properties.

Not everyone speaks out against violence. Press TV speaks with history professor Ali al-Nashmi about the assault:

Press TV: Do you think the government will win in this battle against such forces?al-Nashmi: No... I think the government... I don’t
know, I think there is every opportunity for the Iraqi government they
can win very easily when they attack Fallujah because Fallujah is a
city, they are just some houses - then they can attack the extremists
there using tanks or airplane or by jets.I am surprised. They lost that opportunity because most of extremists
they have escaped from al-Fallujah to other places like Baghdad and in
other places they are increasing the violence.I think if the Iraqi forces and the Iraqi government attacked the
places they would achieve many things: they would achieve a military win
because they would destroy those people – and they have killed many
extremists; and it would be a political win because it would mean in any
place in Iraq it would not be safe for al-Qaeda or al-Dasht.

NBC journalist Richard Engel notes al-Nashmi in his book A Fist in the Hornet's Nest: On the Ground In Baghdad Before, During and After the War, al-Nashmi was a history professor when the US invaded Iraq. Engel reports meeting al-Nashmi in a building being remodeled:A highly ambitious man, he gave me a tour of the new office space --
stepping over a workman scraping droplets of paint off the stone floor
-- explaining the layout of the future headquarters of his new political
part (the Union of Independent Intellecutals), socialist newspaper (The
Dawn of Baghdad), magazine for children (as yet unnamed) and, he hoped,
local television station. [. . .] al-Nashmi was bursting with pent-up political desires.
Twenty years earlier, al-Nashmi had been arrested and tortured by
Saddam's regime for starting a movie club in his home, where about a
dozen of his friends would gather in secret every week to watch and
discuss foreign films. Al-Nashmi was first accused of founding an
illegal communist cell and later of being an Islamic militant, a charge
that seemed especially ill-suited, considering his secular views,
Western dress and polished English.

Through yesterday, Iraq Body Count
counts 269 violent deaths. Now let's move over to the issue of
elections. April 30th, parliamentary elections are supposed to be held
in Iraq. World Bulletin reports:

Iraq's Independent High Election Commission asserted on Sunday that
parliamentary elections will be held on schedule countrywide, including
in the western volatile Anbar province."The elections will not be postponed anywhere in Iraq, including in Anbar," spokesman Safaa al-Musawi told Anadolu Agency."The commission has finalized preparations for the elections everywhere in Iraq, including in Anbar," he added.

Last week,
the Justice and Accountability Commission excluded 69 candidates from
the expected April 30th parliamentary elections. In 2010, the Justice
and Accountability reared its ugly head surprising many -- including
Saleh al-Mutlaq. Well the Justice and Accountability Commission is back.

February 2, All Iraq News reported Nouri
al-Maliki has nominated Basim al-Badri to head the Justice and
Accountability Commission. al-Badri is both Nouri's freind and a member
of Nouri's Dawa political party. In 2010, the commission eliminated
many candidates ahead of the parliamentary elections. They eliminated
Saleh al-Mutlaq, for
example -- the current Deputy Prime Minister. A few token Shi'ites were
eliminated from running -- most of which were steadfast and vocal
opponents of Nouri. However, the bulk of the disqualified were Sunni
politicians. In all, they eliminated 511 candidates from running.

Back to Sabah who reports that the UNHCR has pointed out that, thus far,
the JAC has not checked the names of prominent candidates. (That would
most likely mean Saleh al-Mutlaq's name has not yet been checked which
would explain why he's worried.) Sabah reveals they will be checking
the names of 10,293 candidates in all. He notes many observers fear
the JAC is being used again as a net to remove the political rivals of
Nouri.

Looking at an early list
-- small list of under 300 -- initially sent to JAC, you've got a list
where the only thing that really stands out is the oldest candidate on
that subset was born in 1940 and the youngest in 1982. And then if you
apply a little logic, why is anyone born in 1982 someone requiring a
'Ba'athist' check. They were 20 years old in 2002. If their birthday
was in April or later, how close could they be connected to Saddam Hussein?

Zooming in on one person running in the elections, Rudaw notes:Berivan Navkhosh, the assistant head of the Akre health department in
Duhok, is one of only two women hopefuls running in Iraq’s upcoming
parliamentary elections. Running on an independent slate, Navkhosh says, “It is to show the
public that there are independent individuals running for the parliament
and to show that political parties are not the only ones who nominate
candidates.” Navkhosh was once a member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP),
the largest party in the Kurdistan Region, but says she has quit her
membership in order to maintain her independence. "I used to be a member of KDP, but it has been a while since I
resigned from the party," she says. "My family is KDP, but people who
know me know that I am no longer a member of the KDP."

Changing topics, community member Marci e-mailed to inform I'd forgotten to note the new content at The Third Estate Sunday Review in of the other entries. She is correct. To make up for my oversight, we'll close by noting that content: